How to install KVM on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Headless Server

To install KVM on an Ubuntu 16.04 LTS headless server, you can use the following steps:

1. Install the required packages:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install qemu-kvm libvirt-bin bridge-utils virt-manager

This will install the KVM packages, including qemu-kvm for hardware acceleration, libvirt-bin for managing virtual machines, bridge-utils for setting up network bridges, and virt-manager for managing virtual machines graphically.

2. Add your user to the libvirtd group:

sudo adduser $USER libvirtd

This will allow you to manage virtual machines without using sudo.

3. Enable and start the libvirtd service:

sudo systemctl enable libvirtd
sudo systemctl start libvirtd

4. Test the installation:

virsh -c qemu:///system list

This will list the virtual machines on the system. If the installation was successful, this command should return an empty list.